Organics board braces for hydroponics fight

ORGANICS BOARD BRACES FOR HYDROPONIC FIGHT: USDA’s organic advisory panel is once again going to consider whether to continue to allow non-soil based production systems to be certified as organic. After punting on the issue last spring, the National Organic Standards Board has a handful of proposals in front of it this week during a four-day meeting in Jacksonville, Fla., that would ban aquaponic and aeroponic production while seriously curtailing other container systems.

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The fight pits advocates of stricter adherence to organic rules that put heavy emphasis on the role of the soil in farming and the environment against relative newcomers to the industry who say that soil-less systems could help bolster organic supplies at a time when production acres are not much.

To be sure, soil-less production is still a relatively small portion of organic. A 2016 survey conducted by the National Organic Program found that of 31,000 organic operations, 30 were hydroponic, 22 were aquaponic and 69 were container-based. In total, soil-free methods accounted for just 0.4 percent of all USDA organic operations, according to the survey.

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue could ultimately make a determination on hydroponics and related farming. So far, hasn't shown his hand on any of the various proposals. But generally speaking, he has been vocal about his mission of following through with the White House’s push to reduce regulations and foster business. The full story from Pro Agriculture’s Jenny Hopkinson is here.

HAPPY MONDAY, OCT. 30! Welcome to Morning Ag, where your host is a bit skeptical of the pantry offerings of Kristin Kimball, an upstate New York farmer who oversees 1,100 acres. The Food & Wine November issue features a recipe of lard-laced popcorn and milk, which she says she makes for breakfast on busy mornings. I’d hope that she does indulge in some more food than that, even on hectic days. Got any passionate arguments, news tips or birthday shoutouts? Send them to chaughney@politico.com or @chaughney. Follow the whole team at @Morning_Ag.

TAX REFORM 101: How does our tax system really work? Who pays what — and how does it all add up? And how does the American tax system compare to international competitors? POLITICO’s new explainer video series has you covered. Tax Reform with Bernie Becker is the first of an issue-based animated video series that pairs expert reporters with Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, Matt Wuerker, to provide you with a new way of digesting the news. Click HERE to watch.

FIRST TAXES, THEN NAFTA?: Former U.S. ambassador to Mexico Jim Jones, in an interview with Pro’s Sabrina Rodriguez, speculated that the future of NAFTA would depend on the outcome of President Donald Trump’s tax reform as the pressure is on for him to deliver on his campaign pledges. “Trump is less interested in substance than he is in political victories,” said Jones, who helped oversee the passage and implementation of NAFTA during the Clinton administration. “If the tax bill passes, he’d be more interested in listening to reason.”

(Pros wondering whether the tax reform bill will address issues like estate taxes, the co-op deduction and other areas of interest to aggies may have to wait longer. As POLITICO’s Aaron Lorenzo and Seung Min Kim report, even rank-and-file Republicans feel as though they are in the dark about the specifics.)

The future rests on agriculture and business interests: Jones added that agricultural interests would be a linchpin in persuading the administration to stick with NAFTA, and that pressure from groups will be ratcheting up after the tax reform debate is over. “By that time, the business and agriculture leadership is going to be so outraged at the possibility of leaving NAFTA that there’s a good chance we’ll negotiate.”

The view from the Bayou State: Our Morning Trade colleague, Doug Palmer, is in New Orleans, where NAFTA is also on the mind of a lot of folks. Charles Boustany, who previously represented Louisiana’s third congressional district before losing a bid last year for the Senate, told Doug that he believed a decision by Trump to withdraw from NAFTA would hurt the whole state.

“I think our agricultural community and the business community would be very upset,” Boustany said. Mexico is consistently one of the state’s top three trading partners, along with China and Japan, and anything that disrupts trade with that country could ripple throughout Louisiana’s economy. In addition, Louisiana rice growers depend heavily on exports to Mexico, Boustany said.

CHEF JOSÉ ANDRÉS RETURNS FROM PUERTO RICO: After distributing 2 million freshly cooked meals to Puerto Ricans — more than any other relief organization — José Andréshas now returned to Washington, D.C., with a faith in humanity “multiplied by ten.” His faith in government, however, is jaded.

The celebrity chef, during an event hosted by the Washington Post on Friday that also featured Alice Waters, reflected on his nearly two months of disaster relief efforts on the island through his nonprofit World Central Kitchen. Andrés has criticized the Trump administration’s response as well as the president himself. On Friday, however, he declined to address Trump directly. “I don’t think we have to say anything to one person. I think we have to keep all of us talking between us,” Andrés said.

Andrés has expressed frustration with FEMA over its lack of support of World Central Kitchen, essentially because of red tape and regulations like meal thresholds. The nonprofit now has negotiated a $10 million contract with FEMA to serve food for another two weeks. During Friday’s panel, he said his operation was spending almost $400,000 a day and operating many millions in the red.

Lack of communication, not water. Puerto Rico has plenty of active “oasis” stations to supply the population with water, but there was a lack of leadership, Andrés said. “Puerto Rico needed 1 million gallons [of water a day]. They have that on the island. The only things that had to be done was making sure the generators were functioning, which was not hard to do, he said. “This information was not delivered. Nobody wanted to touch the water.”

Help the bees: Meanwhile the Pollinator Partnership is working to get aid to the island’s 150 beekeepers that lost many of their 4,000 hives. The group has sent food and is working on getting new hive boxes down to the island.

ROW CROPS:

— Sam Clovis' hearing will be soon: The Senate Agriculture Committee is closing in on a confirmation hearing date for Sam Clovis, the Trump administration’s nominee to be USDA chief scientist. Chairman Pat Roberts told E&E News last week that Clovis’ hearing would be on Nov. 9, but a spokeswoman for the committee said Friday that the panel was "not ready to announce a date" because it was working through "scheduling details." More on the controversial nominee from Pro Ag’s Catherine Boudreau here.

— Pushing for prosecution under Magnuson Stevens: Rep. Raúl Grijalva and Rep. Chellie Pingree have written a letter to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross encouraging him to further fine New Bedford, Mass., fishing mogul Carlos “the Codfather” Rafael with civil penalties over his violations under the Magnuson Stevens Act. It also praise Department of Justice officials for appealing a federal judge’s decision that allows Rafael to keep at least 27 boats.

— Ranchers wanting answers: Several ranchers in South Dakota did not get a chance to meet with Perdue last week to question him about the recent GIPSA actions, Tri-State Livestock News reports. They were expecting to see him at the offices of the Natural Resources Conservation Services in Timber Lake, S.D., but Perdue left the office before a media availability event was to begin.

— Butterball gets a no-confidence vote: Cook’s Illustrated wrote in its November/ December issue that consumers should avoid Butterball for their Thanksgiving turkey. The company declined to provide the magazine information about the age of its turkeys and whether the turkeys were vegetarian fed. In addition, the magazinerated eight supermarket turkeys for taste and Butterball was the only one on its “not recommended” list.

— Fears grow that EU glyphosate ban could disrupt global trade: Some agricultural powerhouses fear that if glyphosate’s license is blocked, EU countries will be under pressure to restrict imported products containing the commonly used weedkiller. More from POLITICO Europe’s Simon Marks and Giulia Paravicini here.

— Texas farmers saw $200 million in damage from Hurricane Harvey: That’s according to a new estimate from Texas A&M University. Cotton farmers saw roughly half of the losses, the livestock industry saw $93 million in damage, and rice and soybean growers took an $8 million hit, Jenny Hopkinson reports. However, Texas Observer points out the losses from Harvey are “a shadow” of the estimated damage done in Texas by Hurricane Ike in 2008 and just a fraction of the vast damage done by Hurricane Irma, especially to Florida’s citrus groves and other crop fields.

— O’Brien to head co-op association: Doug O’Brien, the former senior adviser for rural affairs on President Barack Obama’s White House Domestic Policy Council, has been named president and CEO of the National Cooperative Business Association. O’Brien, who joined the group after leaving the White House in November 2016 as executive vice president for programs, will start his new job on Jan. 1, 2018.

— The perils of chlorpyrifos: The New York Times's op-ed columnist Nicholas Kristof turns a critical eye on Dow Chemical’s hard-to-pronounce pesticide and argues that after the “quotidian craziness” of the Trump White House “is forgotten, Americans will be caring for victims of the chemical industry’s takeover of safety regulation.”

— New welfare standards for Chicken McNuggets: McDonald’s is requiring its suppliers like Cargill and Tyson to follow standards for raising and slaughtering chickens. But it still falls short of their competitors, Reuters reports.

— Life after TPP-12 goes on (but will that continue?): The 11 remaining members of the TPP are meeting outside Tokyo today in an attempt to reach an agreement, but the new New Zealand leader’s demands for renegotiation are threatening the chances that members will be able to agree, Nikkei Asian Review reports.

THE WEEK AHEAD: It’s a busy week for many top USDA officials. This morning, USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue is scheduled to swear in Greg Ibach as undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs. He’s swearing him in at the Livestock Exchange Building in Omaha.

Today also marks the deadline for USDA to respond to a bipartisan committee request for details about senior officials using private jets. House Oversight Chairman Trey Gowdy said he and other elected officials were prepared to issue a subpoena if they do not receive any records by Oct. 31. On Sept. 26, a bipartisan group requested these records from 24 federal departments and the West Wing. The USDA and the Department of Justice are the only two agencies that have not responded to the request.

The undersecretary for trade and agricultural foreign affairs Ted McKinney leaves today for his first USDA trade mission in his new role. He will be going to India, where he is scheduled to lead a delegation of 50 business, trade and government groups. His travels take him to Mumbai and New Delhi and he returns home on Friday, Nov. 3.

About The Author : Christine Haughney

Christine Haughney is a reporter and editor of the Morning Agriculture newsletter. She most recently oversaw investigations for the television production company Zero Point Zero where she developed a web series about crimes in the food world that has been purchased by Netflix and streams on the network as Rotten in early January 2018.

Prior to her work in television, she was a staff reporter for The New York Times for eight years on the real estate, metro and media desks. She also reported on the real estate industry as a staff reporter at The Wall Street Journal and Crain's New York Business. Her investigations in the real estate industry helped lead to the imprisonment of two real estate moguls. Earlier in her career, she worked as a junior reporter in The Washington Post's New York bureau and was the first reporter sent in to report on the attacks at The World Trade Center on Sept. 11. Her reporting on air quality at Ground Zero launched a federal investigation by the Environmental Protection Agency.

She graduated from Wellesley College with a major in Political Science and minor in Economics. She also graduated from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. She serves on the board of the Anne O'Hare McCormick Scholarship Fund.